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Chairperson, Mrs Omar,
Ladies and gentleman,
Friends and comrades

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me here today. I recall with great fondness our previous encounter last year. I emerged from this hall with an extremely heightened sense of "family", support and well-being. The memory is a precious one and I look forward to the rest of this morning's activities with great anticipation.

We have much to catch up on, but I thought it might be a good idea to start with a report back on what has been happening in Parliament - and in the Justice Portfolio Committee specifically. As we approach the end of the parliamentary session, we have and will be passing a number of important pieces of legislation. These include the Constitution of the RSA Amendment Bill and the Judicial Officers Amendment Bill. Both pieces of legislation occupy themselves with the transformation of the judiciary and affect the conditions of service of judges and judicial officers. Parts of the legislation restructure our courts and will contribute to their functioning more efficiently. These amendments, relating to court structures and to the conditions of employment for judicial officers, form part of the long-term transformation of the justice system. We hope too, that they will assist in restoring the confidence of the majority of this country's citizens in a single and united judiciary.

Another important piece of legislation is the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill. This legislation will significantly reduce case backlogs in the coming months and years. We believe too, that the fight against crime will be enhanced through the expected reduction in case cycle time by formally allowing prosecutors and lawyers to utilise plea-bargaining in processing criminal matters through our courts.

Our Department is grappling with the thorny issue of legislation that deals with terrorism. Contrary to the opinions espoused in the daily newspapers, Government has no intention of reinstating those dark days of unlimited and unregulated detention without trial. At the moment there is no law that applies directly to acts of terrorism. Until terrorism is precisely defined in our law, we will have to resort to the Common Law to prosecute perpetrators of terrorist acts. This can be a convoluted and protracted process and certainly, more appropriate options remain open to us.

We do, however, await clarity from the United Nations on what precisely is meant by "terrorism". The exact definition of terrorism, in law, has proven a little trickier than the international community ever anticipated. Clearly the definition of terrorism should not infringe on already defined human rights. But at the same time the new definition should make prosecution possible and achievable within specific and pre-determined parameters.

The old axiom that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter is all too familiar to us in this country. Many brave stalwarts of the liberation movement in this country died because the interpretation of what constitutes a terrorist act is quite clearly open to the most barbaric manipulation and deceit. Aberrations must be eliminated and we must strive for a definition that will give us principled guidelines for prosecution that satisfy the broader international community. Mission impossible? Perhaps. I believe, however, that Africa and South Africa, in particular, might be able to share its experiences with the rest of the world and light the way in finding a solution that rests easy with the many nations of the world.

To move on: The Child Justice Bill will soon be tabled in Parliament. The Bill introduces a comprehensive new protocol and approach in respect of juveniles (children under the age of 18 years) who have come into conflict with the law. As at the end of July this year, nearly 2 000 children awaited trial in prisons across the country. Clearly an effective programme for diversion is necessary and where serious offences have been perpetrated, secure and separate places of safety for the young must be provided.

The Bill empowers the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development to establish centralised services centres for the administration of a modern and socially relevant child justice system. The legislation will also align South African criminal procedure in respect of juveniles with our domestic human rights ethic and it will adhere to accepted international standards in this regard. It will also give effect to the relevant international instruments to which South Africa has acceded since 1994.

For this legislation to work, SAPS, Justice, Social Development and Correctional Services will have to work closely across traditional departmental boundaries with the full understanding that an integrated approach will not only result in the more humane and socially acceptable treatment of child offenders, it will result in significant cost benefits to some areas of operation and drive costs upward in others. This is an important piece of legislation and your assistance in making it a success story cannot be underestimated. Ask your local ANC branch how you can help to make the rights of these children real. For instance, the Department of Social Development is compiling a national database of all organisations (NGOs, CBOs and various religious groups) that provide secure care for these children. If your organisation is able to assist in this regard, you should make it known to the Department.

Now let me tell you a little about my constituency in the Free State and what has happened there. The former High Commissioner to the Court of Saint James, Comrade Cheryl Carolus, invited me in August this year to be the keynote speaker at the annual Women's Day workshop that is held at South Africa House in London. As was to be expected with Comrade Cheryl, it was a splendid affair.

During my time there, I met with Dr. Dennis Goldberg, the Director of an NGO called Community H.E.A.R.T., which operates out of the United Kingdom. He advised me that he had books to donate to schools in South Africa. He promised to send me some of these books, but advised me at the time that I would be responsible for internal (i.e. South African) transport arrangements for the books. I readily agreed to his proposal and promptly filed the matter in the deep recesses of my mind, thinking that it was far to noisy for anyone to remember, my name, let alone the promise of books for schools in the rural Free State!

Well, about 100 boxes of books have arrived in South Africa and are ready to be collected from the Department of Education in Pretoria. I am proud to say that we have found a generous sponsor to assist in the transportation of these books to about 25 schools in the north eastern Free State. It has been a joy and I am now a real transport expert, for those of you who have to tackle similar challenges in your respective lines of work!

I hope that one day we might be able to forge links between this community and the people in my constituency. We will have to arrange some kind of sister-branch arrangement that gets our two communities together. Please think about this - it would be a wonderful thing to do.

It would be remiss of me to conclude this address without mentioning the international situation.

We have witnessed over the last two months a number of disturbing developments around the world. Events, I believe, that present serious challenges to world peace. Our government has been clear in its response to the events of September11: we reject terrorism out of hand and the perpetrators of such acts - anywhere in the world - must be brought to book via the appropriate channels.

As South Africans we are therefore concerned that the current world crisis has the potential to heighten religious and ethnic tensions not only in South Africa, but also throughout the world. On our own continent, we have been sad witnesses to religious conflicts flaring into violence and mayhem between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

While the US has every right to track down the perpetrators of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the human tragedy that is unfolding in Afghanistan must create in every one of us - regardless of religious persuasion - a deep sense of unease. As in all wars the most vulnerable - the elderly, the children and the women - bear the harshest burden. This must be especially the case in what is ostensibly one of the poorest countries in the world - a country even further wearied by the ghastly legacy of thirty years of internal strife and hostility. The thousands of Afghan citizens displaced from their homes in an unforgiving terrain, exposed to the elements, starvation staring them in the face, must wonder at the heartlessness of their tormentors. The impact of the coalition raids on the civilians of Afghanistan cannot be condoned.

Our government has joined the international community in calling for restraint and care in the use of military strikes against civilians and social and economic infrastructure. Last week the Department of Foreign Affairs registered the South African government's grave concern over the disastrous humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan and called on the United Nations to ensure that emergency supplies are delivered to the Afghan population as soon as possible and to address the refugee crisis.

After its fifth week, the US campaign has not brought the Taliban down - if anything is seems only to have strengthened their resolve. The stated aim of the US campaign in Afghanistan was to root out terrorists and those that harbour them. The Coalition seems to be no closer to achieving either of these objectives. What have been achieved to date are untold levels of human degradation and misery. The mounting number of civilian casualties necessitates a marked change of strategy.

Humanitarian aid agencies are unable to provide succour to civilians on the ground and their valiant attempts to assist the needy have been further thwarted as their remaining supplies and buildings inside Afghanistan have become the target of stray missiles and bombs.

And as the suffering continues, one has to ask the question: Will not the anguish, pain and misery suffered by the Afghani people simply serve to fuel yet more hatred and extremism?

Maybe at this point we should ponder the question posed by an Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, as she asks: "Will burning the haystack find you the needle? Or will it escalate the anger and make the world a living hell for all of us?"

It is time for us to remember our common humanity. We need as an international community to reaffirm our past commitments to world peace, the restoration of human dignity and the strengthening of the bonds that unite us as a human race. We need to acknowledge the barriers militating against peaceful coexistence. We seem currently to be fixated on ethnic, religious and cultural divides. Our challenge now is to identify and cultivate a socially just, economic and political common ground within a framework of widely ranging identities across those ethnic, religious and cultural divides. And while building common ground, all participants must maintain and respect differences to reflect the dignity of individual experiences.

Cedric Mayson says in the Mail & Guardian (2 November 2001): "Any theology that claims the support of a God of love, mercy and peace for acts of human decimation is warped. It is the ancient problem of people trying to make God in their own image, and Bush and the Taliban have that presumption.

Many feel heart-rending sympathy for the innocent victims of both the World Trade Centre and Afghanistan, and realise there is no future in the attitudes that have unleashed this anti-human violence and counter violence.

Despite the propagandistic presentation of CNN and the BBC on one hand and Taliban broadcasts on the other, the situation clearly demands an alternative evaluation and solution."

He goes on to say: "The challenge is to develop a unity among the progressive forces seeking to transform our society. Contemporary history often throws up conflicts that require us to seek a progressive alternative instead of taking one side or the other."

I believe that the inscription on South Africa's post apartheid Coat of Arms - the highest visual symbol of our new democracy - can guide us along this new path. The motto,! ke e: /xarra //ke, is written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, the oldest known inhabitants on the southern tip of Africa. It means literally: "diverse people unite". It calls for unity in diversity and the recognition of a common humanity regardless of religion race, class or gender.

Thank you once again for inviting me to address you today and I wish you a successful Annual Meeting.

Issued by Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development

5 November 2001